Veterinary student club walks the talk of diversity through outreach

By giving hands-on presentations about animal health at local schools and even partnering with a Gainesville high-risk youth organization, a group of University of Florida veterinary students hope to motivate underprivileged area youngsters to pursue their career dreams.

“My children were very excited when Van Brass and Tyrell Kahan (both from the UF College of Veterinary Medicine’s class of 2011) came into the room,” said Janet Walters, a first-grade teacher at Rawlings Elementary. “Oooohs and aaahhhs spread as they walked in with the small dog on a leash. When they got to listen to the dog’s heartbeat, I could see the wonder on their faces. Maybe we will have a vet in the future from this experience.”

Brass and Kahan are members of the UF chapter of the veterinary student club known as VOICE – Veterinary Students as One in Culture and Ethnicity. In its first year, the group held food and clothing drives for low-income Gainesville residents. This year, the group’s focus has been on direct community outreach.

Both Brass and Kahan are African-American, which enabled Rawlings teachers to offer an example of diversity to their students.

“We actually visited two schools within the past month and gave a presentation on veterinary medicine,” said Kahan, who heads up the community outreach component of the club. “We also developed a pamphlet that talks about how to give your dog a checkup at home, how often to do checkups and when to take your dog to the vet.”

During the school presentations, VOICE members showed kids what a stethoscope is and, using a dog that belongs to one of the members, demonstrated how to check a pet’s eyes and mouth.

VOICE members Lien d’Hespeel and Brandon Culbertson, both from the class of 2011, also took part in school presentation, and member Santiago Diaz, class of 2011, and Kahan co-coordinated a trip to the Santa Fe Teaching Zoo May 1 for kids in the Youth Attack Program. Spearheaded by Harvest Baptist Worship Center pastor Arthur Clark, the program began in Gainesville in 2003 and ministers to teenagers within low-income neighborhoods.

“We now have 47 teens who participate in the program,” said Clark. “These are kids who have been having problems at school, and we now have 25 after-school tutors from UF who come out to Linton Oaks to work with them. One of the moms who has a grandson attending the program knew someone who worked at the vet school, and that led to me getting in contact with the vet students.”

Experiences such as the zoo trip contribute to community awareness and the ability to understand the importance of making positive decisions in life, Clark said.

“As I was growing up, I was fortunate to be able to go to a good school and always have food on my table,” said Diaz, who from an early age performed community outreach in his home country of Colombia. “However, it was hard for me to see how other people did not have all these privileges just because of the place they were born, what they looked like or simply by misfortune.”

Diaz added that in Colombia, many kids are told that they will never be able to go to school and that they must start work at an early age.

“No one gives them an opportunity to succeed in life and I was greatly affected by this,” he said.

When Santiago came to the states five years ago, he was surprised to see that there were only a handful of students from ethnic minorities as part of the CVM student body.

“As time passed, I soon realized that something similar happens in this country, in that there is a cultural stigma for people from minorities to just be happy with having a seven-day job that pays enough to live well,” Diaz said. “However, I like to inspire kids and teach them that we are all equal and we have the same opportunities that anyone else has.”

Diaz added, “I like for them to see that if I was able to get accepted into a graduate program, living for the past five years in this country and with English being my second language, they can do even greater things.”

Brass and Kahan both said that growing up, they knew no African-American veterinarians, nor did they have any conception of veterinary medicine as a career they could aspire to.

“From the standpoint of being African-American, people can tell you that you can do this or that, but it’s much more difficult to imagine if you can’t see it,” Kahan said.

He said he believes many at-risk young people don’t graduate from high school, much less pursue additional educational goals, simply because they don’t believe they can.

“To show them someone who is actually doing it can give them a little more hope that they can do it themselves,” Kahan said.

VOICE’s president, Brass, like other group members, said community service has long been an important part of his life. He learned about the national VOICE group, which originally started at Cornell in 2006, and also that UF did not have a VOICE chapter.

“So I created one,” Brass said, adding that the group has about a dozen members. “Our basic tenets are community service and diversity in veterinary medicine.

“I think people in the veterinary profession aren’t 100 percent aware of the lack of diversity. We push through and don’t look around sometimes,” Brass said. “UF has made some strides, but there’s still a lot of work to be done.”

He emphasized that the VOICE group welcomes additional participation and support from all their classmates, whether from a minority ethnic background or not.

“When people hear ‘diversity,’ they hear ‘race.’ Diversity is not just about race,” Brass said. “Diversity also comes in many other forms, including ethnic, socioeconomic and educational background, sexual orientation and religion. We just hope to be able to inform people about the different ways to achieve diversity, outside of race.”

Anyone seeking more information about VOICE may contact Brass at jayzcowboy@ufl.edu.